CBI to hunt for Rs 1300 crore

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Calcutta, May 21: The CBI will focus on tracing over Rs 1,300 crore the Saradha Group mopped up from the market, sources in the agency said.

Senior officers of the CBI’s special investigation team probing the default scam said that from documents furnished by the state government in the Supreme Court, the SIT and the Enforcement Directorate had come to know that Saradha had collected Rs 2,400 crore, of which Rs 1,300 crore remained unaccounted for.

The ED has traced around 390 bank accounts of the Saradha Group. “Over 15 lakh transactions had been done through these bank accounts over a period of four years before Saradha went bust last year,” a senior ED official said.

“After collating all the information available so far, we have been able to account for roughly Rs 1,056 crore. The remaining amount is yet to be traced,” the official added.

CBI sources said the accounting system Saradha had put in place with the help of a software company did not indicate how the money collected from depositors was utilised.

The sources said CBI officers today met Bengal director-general of police G.M.P. Reddy at Bhawani Bhavan and sought details on documents in the possession of the state police SIT, which had probed the Saradha default before the apex court handed over the case to the central agency.

“The CBI wants details of several case diaries and chargesheets submitted in courts across the state,” said an officer of the now-dismantled Bengal police SIT.